{"id":54875,"date":"2025-09-10T09:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T09:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/54875\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T09:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T09:46:07","slug":"belfast-agreement-referendum-vote-saved-by-u2s-concert-new-book-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/54875\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast Agreement referendum vote \u2018saved\u2019 by U2\u2019s concert, new book says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U2<\/a> concert held in the Waterfront in Belfast<\/a> just days ahead of the Belfast Agreement<\/a> referendum in 1998 was the difference between defeat and victory, leading figures have said in a new book.<\/p>\n

The concert was hurriedly announced after Yes campaigners became concerned in the days before the May 22nd referendum that the result was in doubt, especially fearing that a majority of Protestants would say No.<\/p>\n

Remembering the photograph of her husband David Trimble<\/a>, the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party<\/a>, and SDLP<\/a> leader John Hume<\/a> with U2 singer Bono<\/a>, Trimble\u2019s wife, Daphne, says in Stephen Walker\u2019s new biography, David Trimble \u2013 Peacemaker: \u201cI honestly believe that without it the referendum might have gone the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, one of Trimble\u2019s key advisers, David Kerr, believes the Waterfront concert \u201cwas worth more than 100,000\u201d votes in a campaign that saw 677,000 people in Northern Ireland voting Yes, with 275,000 voting No.<\/p>\n

Even though the number was not required by election law, Trimble believed the agreement had to get the support of more than 70 per cent voters if it had the chance to survive the inevitable later battles surrounding it.<\/p>\n

In the end, it breached that target, just \u2013 with 71 per cent of those who voted in Northern Ireland on May 22nd, 1998, saying Yes. Later research indicated that between 52 and 58 per cent of Protestants supported it.<\/p>\n

Remembering Hume\u2019s friendship with Bono, senior SDLP figure Tim Attwood approached the musician, telling the singer: \u201cTrimble\u2019s in trouble.\u201d Bono replied: \u201cPut it this way, I\u2019ll do whatever John Hume wants me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attwood now faced the task of persuading Trimble \u2013 often difficult, but always shy \u2013 of taking to a stage in front of thousands of young people. He contacted Kerr, one of Trimble\u2019s closest staff.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I found myself in between two great men\u2019: Bono finds pride in the name of peaceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Kerr was immediately convinced that the concert could be \u201ca game changer\u201d. He told Trimble\u2019s biographer: \u201cI knew instantly it was the opportunity to get the image the campaign desperately needed. We were in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trimble accepted, knowing that he \u201cwas in the fight of his life\u201d. The Waterfront was quickly booked, and free tickets given out across Northern Ireland, with Trimble and Hume to appear on stage with Bono.<\/p>\n

Trimble was the most nervous, with Hume trying to calm Trimble \u201cmore than the other way round\u201d. Then Labour MP Kate Hoey, now a member of the House of Lords, said it was the first time she had seen Trimble \u201cgenuinely frightened\u201d.<\/p>\n

Initially, Trimble and Hume had intended appearing in jackets and ties. Trimble initially refused to take off his jacket, telling political consultant Mark Fulbrook: \u201cI don\u2019t do that.\u201d Fulbrook replied: \u201cNo, you sort of really have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, the jackets were lost, but not the ties and the 2,500 crowd roared when Bono raised Trimble and Hume\u2019s arms in the air \u2013 the film and photograph of which went around the world in the hours afterwards.<\/p>\n

Today, Kerr says U2\u2019s Waterfront concert was \u201cthe defining moment of the campaign\u201d, showing despite all the bitterness and negativity moderate nationalist and unionists supported the centre ground.<\/p>\n

The joy of the referendum result a few days later \u2013 when 71 per cent of Northern voters backed the agreement, despite the opposition of the Democratic Unionist Party<\/a> \u2013 was countered, however, by a death threat to Trimble.<\/p>\n

The threat in a call to the Trimbles\u2019 home was taken by his teenage son, Richard, just as the result was being announced: \u201cIf your dad is out in the street, something will happen to him,\u201d his son was told. Extraordinarily, he did not even tell his father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U2 concert held in the Waterfront in Belfast just days ahead of the Belfast Agreement referendum in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,23936,3377,9,10,39894,31778,13,14,6,12500,11,12,15,16,5,954,39895,7,8,3380,39896,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-54875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-belfast-agreement","10":"tag-bono","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breakingnews","13":"tag-david-trimble","14":"tag-democratic-unionist-party","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-john-hume","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-northern-ireland","25":"tag-social-democratic-and-labour-party","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-u2","29":"tag-ulster-unionist-party","30":"tag-world","31":"tag-world-news","32":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}